Monday, August 30, 2010

Fund manager says most oil spill claims lack documentation

"BP is one of many companies that helped pay for the governors’ convention. BP officials said the organization has been a corporate affiliate of the Southern Governors’ Association for about 20 years and contributed $50,000 this year."

Fund manager says most oil spill claims lack documentation

HOOVER | The administrator of the new claims process for victims of the Gulf oil spill said Sunday most of the individual claims reviewed in the first week lacked the minimal documentation to be paid.

“There are thousands of claims that have been filed with no documentation at all,” Ken Feinberg told state officials at the Southern Governors’ Association convention.

Feinberg took over the claims process from BP on Aug. 23. He said 18,900 individual claims were submitted in the first week and all were reviewed. He says payments were authorized to 1,200 individuals totaling about $6 million in emergency compensation.

Payments have already been processed for some and the rest will be done today, he said. Most were for less than $25,000. Those who lacked the necessary documentation will be notified and told what type of material they might submit for payment, he said.

Feinberg said profit and loss statements, tax returns and similar documents are not necessarily required. He said minimal proof is all that is needed, and a crew member of a fishing boat might get paid based on a letter from his captain detailing how the worker had been affected.

Businesses submitted 7,400 claims in the first week and their review is next for Feinberg and his staff of 200 reviewers.

“Once a business documents those claims, we will pay those claims within seven days,” he said.

Some Gulf Coast officials expressed concern that claims not be delayed by asking for one form of documentation and then another.

Feinberg said success will depend on the speed of processing claims, which will not be delayed.

Joining Feinberg at the meeting were incoming BP CEO Bob Dudley and retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the spill.

BP is one of many companies that helped pay for the governors’ convention. BP officials said the organization has been a corporate affiliate of the Southern Governors’ Association for about 20 years and contributed $50,000 this year.

Riley was the only Gulf Coast governor who heard their comments because the others were elsewhere, including attending observances of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But they sent representatives.

Dudley says BP officials will meet with representatives of Alabama’s governor and attorney general today to discuss the state’s $148 million claim against BP for taxes lost due to the spill.

The attorney general sued BP the same day the governor filed the initial claim, which Dudley said complicated the handling. He said today’s meeting is a get-acquainted session, and he doesn’t expect a resolution.

5 comments:

Six million dollars paid in claims? Stop the presses! BP is being bled to death by the heartless, ruthless, merciless people of the Gulf coast going for every peanut and penny they can greedily grasp from poor prostrate BP.

"'There are thousands of claims that have been filed with no documentation at all,' Ken Feinberg told state officials at the Southern Governors’ Association convention."

I predicted this. BP will pay every reasonable claim, but by letting BP be arbiter of which claims are reasonable and which are not, that won't turn out to be a burdensome number of claims. I love it. I love, love, love it.

BP took a page right out of the VA and other similar cases in American History. Drag this out for as long as you can. You know a lot of the plaintiffs will get very ill and hopefully die. And then there won't be anyone to sue you anymore.

Sometimes I am profoundly disappointed in this country. Seriously. Because it never ceases to amaze me how it can sell such a pretty picture that is so obviously covering something noxious and foul.

The Government will do the same thing. It's policy. And right now the economy is shrinking and if they deny claims, then they can also deny unemployment because people who cannot document work for BP claims, obviously cannot document legitimate work for unemployment. Its a win win situation[note angry sarcasm]

Don't reward criminals! Anyone earning a resonable amount of money has to pay taxes thus creating documentation with the IRS. Gulf oil damage claims should not be paid to "cash businesses" that did not pay taxes!

Who is BP Slick

John L. Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper, located in Tuscaloosa County Alabama. I am the enforcement and advocacy branch of the Friends of Hurricane Creek.
Photographer / videographer, I have dedicated my life to exposing the truth about pollution and lack of accountability by the industries and agencies who use our waterways as waste conduits.